The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-09-09
MERCHANTS VS.. RAILROADS.

The course of the business men OF the
Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday
night is to be commended. We do not
believe that q single man will De found,
truly interested in the growth of Utah
generally, and Salt Lake in particular,
who will refuse to support the de-
termination so far reached, or any other
resolve that the exigencies may require.
A certain class has, for years, per-
sisted in attributing the backwardness
of Utah to the religious conflict that has
ragged here. There is much truth in the
allegation, but we doubt if religious
strife can begin to compare in evil eff
fects with the course OF railroads.
Nothing could be more unjust than to
pit Salt Lake against Omaha. The lat
ter city was bordering on the edge of
civilized habitations, when Salt Lake
was little more than a desert oasis with
almost 900 miles of wastes on either
side. Omaha has had every advantage
that railroads could give to her, and
while we wish our booming sister much
JOY and trust her progress may be IN
interrupted, we do protest against the
robbery of Utah by the Union Pacific,
or any other road, for the profit of
Nebraska and her lively city, or any
other section.
In Colorado the men who made money
out of mines put winnings in real
estate in Denver and we see the
result in that thriving place. Outside
of the Walker Bros, II. W. Lawrence,
Ben Hampton, Joab Lawrence, W. S.
Godbe, and the Mormons interested in
mines, how much of the net products
of the mines of Utah has been invested
in real estate in Utah? Outside of the
employment of men and the consump
ton of food, (and we admit they are
considerable, but they were indispen-
sible to the mine owners themselves,
what have the Horn Silver, the Ontario
and other huge properties, which have
paid and still pay dividends, done for
BnO 14dGC41d4 prosperity Vi " Ioh al
most every dollar has been rushed
away and elsewhere placed that it
might be taxed and build up other sec
tons. This injustice has ever been
done to Utah. Not so with Denver
and Omaha, where railroads and mine
owners have forced them to the front.
But look at the history of railroading
in Utah. Note the shipment of iron for
the defunct little Utah Eastern; the
shipment of machinery by wagon TO
Park City as cheaper than by rail; the
killing of home manufactures whenever
they opened up, and as far as could
be done by a rate into Utah so low as
to be unworthy the name of rate. Read
our coal history, the expectation of
salt, the inshipping of -four and
oats from Nebraska and Mime
sofa to cut down the values
of the men here whose honest toll
had made the building of railroads
to Utah possible nor are we too forget
that the cause which has led to the
closing down of the Alice mine in Butte
has been going on for years with ag-
gravating "reminiscences; nor that coal
has been hauled to Cache Valley by
wagon cheaper than the U. P. would
do it; nor that men have been bull
dozed into shipping over certain lines
against their wish; nor that sugar
brought from the west had to be falsely
branded that it might go over the Utah
and Northern; nor that we are per-
sistently robbed in the handling of ores
and metals, and of almost every ad-
vantage that geographically and from
the nature of our resources Justly be-
longs to US. Exaction has been the
rule where competition was impossible.
Utah at large, Ogden and Salt Lake as
her largest cities, owe nothing of their
development to the good will of rail-
roads. Every step has been made with
a railroad hand on the throat OF our
industries and enterprises. 1t is said
that the more you strip COW the better
mixer she is; but this applies only when
you feed COW we'll.
We refer mostly to the Union Pacific
because it has been here longest, and
had the picking when there was
no competition; and we have nothing
to say of purely local lines:
but if this country owes anything to
the Union Pacific or to any other road,
we have vet TO be made acousinted
with the fact. The very food con-
sumed at Garfield, where thousands
have been weekly during the hot
season, came from Omaha. All the
money csrted away. We fancy. had
this fact been known, the patronage
had been lighter to the Beach, or
picnics had been more generally taken
there.
,.,;aH Ia TT-;or,